ID&D KB How-to Guide
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The Cidi DesignPLUS Tools provide a robust set of editing tools to bring your course alive!
The DesignPLUS Tools are enabled for all faculty from content pages, assignments, discussions or the course syllabus in MyClasses. The Legacy version of the Cidi Design Tools will be supported by Cidi Labs until 12/31/24. Throughout this year (up to 12/31/24), you can switch between the Legacy Design Tools and the new DesignPLUS Tools. We encourage you to experiment with these tools to investigate what they can offer you. Instructions on how to switch between the two versions are provided at the bottom of this page.
This article provides step-by-step instructions on:
Opening the Cidi Design Tools
Switching from Legacy Design Tools to the DesignPLUS Toolset
Selecting the DesignPLUS Tools as Your Default Editor
Switching Back to the Legacy Tools
You can click on the images displayed to see them larger and with more detail.
Opening the Cidi Design Tools
To open the Design Tools, follow these steps:
Open your Canvas course.
Navigate to a content page you wish to edit.
Click Edit. at the top of the page.
You should see a rocket ship icon in the upper right corner of your screen. If the icon is grey, it will open the Legacy Design Tools. If the icon is red, it will open the DesignPLUS Tools. Click the rocket launch button and the Design Tools Sidebar will open.
Don’t See a Rocket?
If you have never used the design tools before, you might have to manually open them the first time you attempt to use them.
Depending on whther you are on a PC or a Mac, you will need to press different buttons to open the sidebar.
PC - Alt + shift + D
Mac - Option + shift + D
Switching from Legacy Design Tools to the DesignPLUS Toolset
At the present time you can switch between the Legacy Cidi Design Tools and the new Cidi DesignPlus Tools.
By default, the Legacy version of the Design Tools will open.
From within the Legacy Design Tools panel, click on the gear icon on the far right of the tools pop out panel.
On the next pop out panel, click on “Try New Version.”
Selecting the DesignPLUS Tools as Your Default Editor
After you have opened the new version of the Cidi Design Tools, you can now select it as your editor.
To select the DesignPLUS Tool:
Click on the three dots in the right corner (Options menu).
Click on user settings.
You have the option of how you will access it. You can select options to either show the rocket icon each time you enter edit mode on a page in MyClasses, or have the entire tools panel open every time. Most people just opt to have the rocket icon visible so they can click on it if they need to use the tools, rather than having the big panel open every time. To make your selection, click the appropriate tick box to:
Show Launch Button (a rocket will appear in the upper right corner when you click edit for a page) or
Automatically Launch Sidebar (the sidebar will appear when you click edit for a page).
You are able to switch between these settings at any time, simply repeat steps 1 and 2 above.
Enabling Advanced Tools
DesignPLUS Tools has the option to enable access to advanced tools to give you more choice and control over the features you can use. The PLUS tools are automatically set to the Basic Tools option which is suitable for most users; however, to enable the advanced tools as part of your sidebar:
Make sure the DesignPLUS Sidebar is open:
Click on the three vertical dots on the right side of the DesignPLUS sidebar.
Click on User Settings.
In the next popout window, scroll down and either click on Enable all Advanced Tools, or individually click on just the advanced tools you want to enable.
If one of the Add Advanced Elements tools has been used when creating content, the controls for that tool will show up for a user when editing that content even if they have not turned on that tool. This allows teachers to work with relevant content without needing to turn on all of the tools.
Switching back to the Legacy Cidi Design Tools
You can easily switch back from DesignPLUS to the old Legacy sidebar.
Make sure the DesignPLUS Sidebar is open:
Click on the three vertical dots on the right side of the DesignPLUS sidebar.
Click on User Settings.
Click on Switch to the Legacy Sidebar at the top of the options.
Play and Practice!
If you would like to try out the newer DesignPLUS Tools, the articles listed below can show you how to use them! Request a Playground course to practice and play with these tools!
Related Articles
- Conflicts between the Rich Content Editor and Cidi Design Tools
- Advanced Styling and Design Techniques
- The DesignPLUS Content Editor Sidebar
- DesignPLUS Multi-Tool
- Creating Content Pages with DesignPLUS
- DesignPLUS Upload/Embed Image Tool
Visit the DesignPLUS Training Series Tutorials for more videos. For more step-by-step guides, visit the DesignPLUS User Guide.